As much as I liked the first book in this series, I'm starting to think that Slaughter has created one of those towns were everything that possibly could go wrong will and all her characters will have horrible things happen to them over and over. It might seduce some readers into thinking she is a wonderful suspense writer but those of us who appreciate realism to a degree will grow tired of the improbability of a small group of people going through these horrendous events month after month. Don't move to Grant County, GA. You're bound to get killed. ( )

As much as I liked the first book in this series, I'm starting to think that Slaughter has created one of those towns were everything that possibly could go wrong will and all her characters will have horrible things happen to them over and over. It might seduce some readers into thinking she is a wonderful suspense writer but those of us who appreciate realism to a degree will grow tired of the improbability of a small group of people going through these horrendous events month after month. Don't move to Grant County, GA. You're bound to get killed. ( )

Horrific things are going on in Heartsdale, GA that begin when police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver has to kill a thirteen year-old girl in order to save the boy she’s threatening to shoot. Finding out how they’d reached that point isn’t easy as no one wants to talk, made more disturbing by the things Dr Sara Linton uncovers during the autopsy. Yes, there are some very sick people in this world and rumors are swirling.

Once again the author provides chilling scenarios and gritty details while addressing more than one topic that can make the reader feel uncomfortable. In this case we’re talking child pornography, self mutilation and suicide. We not only find out what’s going on and how many people are affected by it, but we follow the thoughts and actions of Jeff, Sara and Detective Lena Adams who is still recovering from what took place in the last book.

Jeff and Sara are slowly trying to build a relationship again. Both are united in finding out what’s going on. He’s wracked with guilt over killing a little girl, wondering if there had been another option. The girl had been Sara’s patient and she wonders if she missed some clues, fearing other kids also need to be helped.

Lena isn’t doing as well as she’d like others to believe. But she hits rock bottom and with some tough love, we start to see a difference. Lena is not an easy person to like with her gruff, aggressive approach and chip on her shoulder. We do see a different side of her and even if you can’t like her, you can appreciate why she makes a good police officer. Have some tissues handy.

One of the things this author does really well is give realistic characters that are most often not truly good or truly bad, but a combination of both; although some do such horrific things that it’s sometimes difficult to remember that there were aspects we liked before finding out what they were doing. Some have no redeeming qualities at all and with others you can only hope.

There are times when the story seems to drag a little, although the story is well-written between discovering what's going on as well as building on the personal lives of 3 main characters. ( )

Well this book was a lot like the first one. It was harsh, graphic, sadistic, in-depth, smart, long, emotional, spine-chilling and did I mention graphic?

The post mortem results will stay with me forever. It was just... eugh! The author's mind is so creative in a dark way I'm not sure whether to admire her for it or be frightened by it. How does she sleep at night?

The characters again are complex and intriguing. Lena is my favourite and the character I found most irritating too. I just wanted her to snap out of her self-loathing and wallowing and be that bad ass cop she was before. She's so traumatized from her ordeal of the previous book she cannot think straight. She's suicidal and emotionally/psychologically destroyed. Her guardian, whose name escapes me, is there for her when before as she'd been growing up, he'd been an addict she couldn't rely on. She blames him for her late sister becoming blind. Those years of anger towards him, Lena in this book, starts to let him back in again and through her grief and pain he is her rock and the kick up the backside she needs. It's a beautiful and haunting moment when she is about to kill herself and he stands there and says, if you're gonna do it just do it and get it over with, or man up and start to take life by the horns again. Basically, stop wallowing in self-pity and snap out of it. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if she would do it or not.

Sara and Jeffrey are romantic in this novel after a shaky start in the first book. They're rekindling their romance after a horrible divorce due to Jeffrey's infidelity. I like their relationship but at the same time I find it unlikeable. It isn't like the romance you read in a lot of books. The passion and desire. It is there, but it is there in a very realistic form and that to me, can sometimes be unpleasant to read. The embarrassments, the moments where you feel they aren't as passionate or in love with each other as you'd like, and then the misunderstandings/misinterpretations of their actions or words. It was all real and it worked with the genre, considering all the horrific deaths going on, but don't expect mushy or hellfire passion. It's not there.

The criminals are cold and calculating and you won't expect the killers to be who they are. When you do discover more and more what the real dark secret is behind a supposedly unwanted pregnancy, (as if the image of a newborn baby getting flushed down the toilet isn't bad enough) you really feel a sickening coldness in your gut. But the author doesn't disappoint with her deep, concise and detailed knowledge of forensics, of the police, investigations and the criminal mind. She's very intelligent and knows what she's talking about and it shows in her writing.

The author's titles to her books are true to her story and have a more direct meaning than we would like, so when I discovered the reason behind the title as I was reading I nearly threw up in my mouth. And this book does have a few of these moments where you wince, swallow back bile and take a minute to digest it before you can read on.

Nevertheless I did like it. I didn't like it as much as the first one, I think because I liked Lena's character more then, than now. I wish she'd stop crashing and pick herself back up. She was supposed to be a strong character and in this book, despite all the horrors she has been through, I imagined she'd recover in a more healthier way.

I wanted to give it 4 stars but I'm not sure I can when I think I gave the first book 4. It's still great. No major complaints. So this is 3.5 stars from me.

In the future I'll be onto the next one. It's sat there on my shelf, waiting for me to dive into the dark world that is Karin Slaughter's mind. ( )

Series note: This is book #2 in Slaughter’s Grant County series and there are numerous references to events in the first book.

When an altercation between teenagers in a skating rink parking lot ends in tragedy, Grant County medical examiner, Sara Linton, and her ex-husband, Chief of Police, Jeffrey Tolliver, are shocked and disturbed by the true nature of the crime and the fact that evil is lurking in their small and seemingly innocuous town.

The plot is extremely disturbing and horrific. Thankfully, there isn’t too much description of the actual abuse otherwise I might have had to DNF. The story itself is compelling and the message that appearances can be deceiving and we can never really know the people around us is an important one.

The real problem with this book is the characterization. None of the characters are likable or sympathetic not even the so-called protagonists, Jeffrey, Sara and Lena, who do and say very hurtful things to one another and to others. The only character to come across as a good person with a good heart is Hank, Lena’s uncle. I’m amazed that he was willing to put up with her.

All in all, Kisscut is a well-written and thought provoking book but not for the faint of heart. ( )

Wikipedia in English (1)

When police chief Jeffrey Tolliver responds to a disturbance at a local skating rink, the last thing he expects is to have to shoot a 13-year-old girl who's holding a gun on a fellow student. Then Jenny Deaver's autopsy reveals two stunning facts: she did not bear the murdered newborn discovered in the rink's restroom, and she had recently been genitally mutilated. With his ex-wife, pediatrician Sara Linton, Jeffrey uncovers a child sex and pornography ring involving Jenny, her classmates, and their mothers--a horrific enterprise that culminated in the killing that Tolliver will never be able to forget. This taut, chilling thriller showcases Karin Slaughter's skill at plotting, pace, and narrative, and will linger in the reader's mind long after the stunning denouement. This is a terrific sequel to her debut, Blindsighted, with two protagonists whose complex relationship will no doubt be a featured subplot in her next offering. --Jane Adams

Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember. But when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton - the town's paediatrician and medical examiner - finds herself entangled in a horrific tragedy. What seemed at first to be a terrible but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications. The autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse, of ritualistic self-mutilation, but when Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, they are frustrated at every turn. The children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. But when a young girl is abducted, it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime, one far more shocking than anyone could have imagined. And unless Sara and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it's going to happen again...… (more)